The 43 Best Rats in Magic Ranked

Last updated on July 23, 2024

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion | Illustration by Valera Lutfullina

I remember fondly when I opened a Pack Rat in a Return to Ravnica booster and immediately thought about building a rat deck, with Pack Rats and some rats I had in my collection. The Commander format wasn’t a big thing back then, and neither were black devotion decks. That’s when I realized that many rat cards I already had wanted as many rats as possible, and I knew I was onto something.

Pack Rat became one of the most hated cards at the kitchen table, no doubt about it. But that’s when I realized that rats were an okay and viable creature type to build around, and they usually want to be around other rats.

Rats are also associated with diseases, and in MTG’s case, poison or infect. Today we’re getting our feet deep into rot and sewage, right into the rats’ nest, as we examine the best rats MTG has to offer. 

What Are Rats in MTG?

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm | Illustration by Christina Kraus

Rat is a creature type in Magic that's been around since the very first set. There are nearly 100 cards with the rat creature type, and they all have black in their color identity. A handful sniff around red and blue and almost none are white or green.

Most rats have low mana values and aren’t particularly powerful. There are quite a few rats with effects that focus on rat swarms and give you advantages when you have more rats in play or allow you to have any number of the same card in your deck.

#43. Ruin Rat

Most rats are great expendable creatures, and Ruin Rat is proof of it. The ability to exile a card from a graveyard can be pretty useful, and a 1/1 with deathtouch is always a decent early drop.

#42. Gnat Miser

I like Gnat Miser for its highly specific ability. Reducing all your opponents’ hand limits by one isn’t the strongest ability, but it’s a fun and original way to annoy your opponents and give them some disadvantages.

#41. Kuro’s Taken

Bushido was a controversial ability back in its time because of the weird and unfun board states it created. Kuro's Taken can be a decent filler card. Its regenerate ability lets you attack or block without having to worry too much.

#40. Nezumi Bone-Reader

The main issue with Nezumi Bone-Reader is that its ability can only be used as a sorcery. Sacrifice outlets are some of the most useful things a deck can have, and discarding from an opponent’s hand is a great way to increase the pressure.

This card is still good and useful, but it’d be better if its ability was at instant speed.

#39. Rancid Rats

Rancid Rats can be a great card if you manage to raise its defense. Having skulk with a low attack makes it basically unblockable while having deathtouch with a high defense can make for an amazing blocker.

#38. Mukotai Ambusher

There’s not much to say about Mukotai Ambusher. It’s a good filler card to ensure some combat tricks and lifegain thanks to its ninjutsu.

#37. Scrib Nibblers

Scrib Nibblers’ ability is a decent way to consistently remove a card from the top of an opponent’s library every turn. Its landfall ability also allows you to use this ability twice most turns.

#36. Nezumi Bladeblesser

Neon Dynasty had a strong focus on equipped and enchanted creatures with cards that benefited your modified creatures, and cards that benefited from them. Nezumi Bladeblesser is at its best if you control both an enchantment and an artifact, but it’s still worth it when you just have one of them.

#35. Typhoid Rats

A 1/1 with deathtouch for a single black mana is always a great filler for any deck. Typhoid Rats is a perfectly decent blocker for your early turns.

#34. Shoreline Looter

Shoreline Looter is the rat version of Looter il-Kor, although one that can draw without discarding if you have threshold. It’s a good rat and a good rogue, especially if you care about dealing combat damage or about the saboteur triggers.

#33. Relentless Rats

You could technically build an EDH deck where every creature save the commander is just Relentless Rats. I’m not saying it’d be a good deck, but this card can make for some fun strategies in more casual decks.

#32. Locust Miser

Locust Miser is basically a slightly stronger version of Gnat Miser. Reducing your opponents’ hand limit by two can make a more interesting difference when it comes to hurting their play, so it earns a higher spot.

#31. Rotting Rats

The main disadvantage of Rotting Rats is that it makes every player discard, including you. Luckily black has tons of ways to turn that into an advantage (or at least mitigate the damage), so this card can be a fun addition to your black decks.

#30. Wave of Rats

Wave of Rats stands out because of how aggressive its abilities are compared to other rats. Trample and blitz plus the ability to return it to the battlefield if it dealt damage to a player are a great mix of abilities to put pressure onto an opponent while also drawing cards.

#29. Okiba Reckoner Raid / Nezumi Road Captain

The back side of this saga is the important part here. Giving all your vehicles menace can turn a decent board state into a serious threat to your opponents, and that’s exactly what Nezumi Road Captain guarantees.

#28. Tidecaller Mentor

Tidecaller Mentor can be a great Gravedigger-like rat if you have threshold. If you don't, it’s also a good rat as a 3/3 menace, and it gets better if you can blink it later when the threshold is obtained.

#27. Insatiable Frugivore

Insatiable Frugivore provides you with lifegain and a way to turn Food tokens into mass pumps. When you’re playing cards that make rats in spades, like Song of Totentanz or Vren, the Relentless, pumping your team and giving them menace is a very strong proposition, and the card is very respectable on its own.

#26. Crypt Rats

There are better ways to deal large amounts of damage to creatures and players, but Crypt Rats can be a really fun way to take out the battlefield if you have some spare black mana.

#25. Swarm of Rats

Rat decks tend to play lots of the little critters. They’re small and mostly weak, but they get strong with numbers.

Swarm of Rats takes that to the next obvious step by gaining power equal to the number of rats you control, which makes it a nice threat with a good board state.

#24. Stronghold Rats

The idea behind Stronghold Rats is similar to Rotting Rats. It’s basically a repeatable discard effect since it triggers when dealing damage to opponents, and it has shadow.

#23. Ichor Rats

Everyone knows infect was a fun and balanced mechanic that no one hated. Ichor Rats not only has infect, it also gives your opponents a poison counter as soon as it hits the battlefield. Any proliferate card you have becomes instantly way more threatening.

#22. Ruthless Radrat

The squad ability is a powerful one, allowing you to create more copies of the creature. Fallout‘s Ruthless Radrat has a different take on the ability, and you can make copies without spending mana as long as you have a packed graveyard. Getting two rats for 3 mana and four cards in your graveyard is interesting, and it only gets better from here.

Ruthless Radrat’s never amazing, but it’s playable in decks that care about the number of rats you control.

#21. Persistent Marshstalker

Persistent Marshstalker can easily be a 4/1 or 5/1 for only 2 mana, so it already has great stats. The best part of this Bloomburrow card is when you can put it straight onto the battlefield attacking, and in an aggressive deck, this represents 4 or 5 damage coming out of nowhere. Great for Flinging, too.

#20. Lord Skitter, Sewer King

I'd pay for an enchantment that spits out a 1/1 each turn. The extra utility that Lord Skitter, Sewer King brings for taking out an opponent's trash is good. If you cannot grant haste to the rat token, there is always Piper of the Swarm to give you creature-stealing capability. The word “each” on Twisted Sewer-Witch makes it one of the best enchantment role token generators and is mean when combined with tokens from Lord Skitter and a creature sacrifice outlet.

#19. Rat Colony

Rat Colony has an advantage over Swarm of Rats because it gets a head start by having a base power of 2. It also lets you have any number of copies in your deck, so you can exploit that if played right.

#18. Skullsnatcher

Ninjutsu is a controversial but cool ability because it can make for some great combat tricks. Skullsnatcher isn’t the strongest ninjutsu card, but it’s a reliable way to remove certain cards from an opponent’s graveyard.

#17. Nashi, Moon's Legacy

Sometimes one more copy of your rat is enough and Nashi, Moon's Legacy practically gives you a flashback on legendaries and rats in your graveyard. I won't say no to evasion and ward on my commander either, and going Sultai() feels fresh for rats.

#16. Tangled Colony

Like all the rat tokens from Wilds of Eldraine, Tangled Colony can't block, and who cares, the Colony on attack threatens quite a bit of damage and so extra bodies even if it's destroyed in combat. A supremely efficient 2-drop that helps you stay super aggressive.

#15. Refurbished Familiar

As weird-looking as a flying zombie rat looks, Refurbished Familiar from Modern Horizons 3  is a very efficient card, offering us a 2/1 flying creature that makes opponents discard a card for as low as 1 black mana – or you draw a card if they can’t discard. This card is already putting up some numbers in formats like Pauper.

#14. Wick, the Whorled Mind

Wick, the Whorled Mind has that Ophiomancer pedigree where you’ll usually get a token each turn and then you can sacrifice it to get a benefit. In this case, the card provides fodder, and it’s also a sacrifice outlet. With this rat warlock as your black commander, you’ll want to put a large number of rats into play to grow up a snail, sacrifice it, and get a lot of cards. Changeling creatures are both snails and rats, so if you cast a changeling, you can use the rat aspect to grow a snail and sacrifice it later as a snail to draw cards.

#13. Nezumi Graverobber / Nighteyes the Desecrator

Nezumi Graverobber’s low casting cost and cheap ability make it absurdly easy to flip into its stronger version. Nighteyes the Desecrator’s ability is clearly more costly, but having a repeatable way to put creatures from graveyards onto your field is always a great advantage.

#12. Okiba-Gang Shinobi

Being able to force an opponent to discard two every time you deal damage to them can put a ton of pressure on them. Okiba-Gang Shinobi ensures you get a hit at least once thanks to its ninjutsu ability.

#11. Azure Beastbinder

A fairly strong card in Bloomburrow Limited, Azure Beastbinder is a great way to keep one of your opponent’s threats in check. It has that pseudo-detain ability every time it attacks, and as a 1/3 with vigilance and evasion, it can attack and block really well. If they have a big blocker and you swing in, they’re left with a 2/2 so that opens the way to attacks. It reminds me of the benefits you gain with Tishana's Tidebinder, only that it can be done every turn and for different permanents.

#10. Greasefang, Okiba Boss

Let’s keep with the vehicle subtheme. Greasefang, Okiba Boss is a great support in any vehicle deck thanks to its ability to bring it back from the graveyard.

#9. Karumonix, the Rat King

You could call the urge to play rats infectious and Karumonix, the Rat King would heartily agree. This Phyrexia: All Will Be One card provides toxicity to any rat you play, whether it's a Pack Rat, Rat Colony, or Relentless Rats you are in good shape to outnumber the opposing blockers and start dealing damage in the form of poison counters. Karumonix may not be an elegant way to win, but it works.

#8. Throat Slitter

You need to make sure you have a way to give Throat Slitter some good evasion. That alone ensures a repeatable removal on a stick, which is always a great thing to have.

#7. Silver-Fur Master

We’ve already gone through quite a few rats with ninjutsu, so it had to be expected there’d be a rat with good support for the mechanic. Silver-Fur Master is a great complement for ninjutsu creatures and strategies.

It's also a clear reference to Master Splinter from TMNT, so that instantly makes it better.

#6. Vren, the Relentless

Vren, the Relentless can be an excellent control build-around, turning your black removal into exile effects and growing your rat numbers at the same time. Just killing a creature and making a Rat token can be a good proposition if you’re playing a rat-typal strategy while serving as graveyard hate.It would be just an okay card if the tokens created by Vren were measly 1/1’s, but they’re */*, like Relentless Rats or Pack Rat tokens. Furthermore, the ability triggers on each end step, so if your opponent’s creatures are fighting amongst themselves, it also feeds the ability.

#5. Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni played at the right time can net you a game-changing creature from an opponent’s graveyard. You can consistently take creatures away from your opponents if you have ways to give it evasion.

#4. Pack Rat

Pack Rat doesn’t only gain power from the other rats you control, it also gains toughness. Its second ability lets you create tokens that are copies of it, which can get out of hand very quickly. One card that is better played than discarded is Song of Totentanz to grow your Pack immensely.

#3. Marrow-Gnawer

Rats aren’t so common that giving fear to all rats can turn into a problem for you. Marrow-Gnawer’s ability lets you sacrifice a rat to duplicate the number of rats you control. Combine that with something like Pack Rat and it suddenly becomes an absurdly threatening field.

#2. Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm can turn your rats into amazing attackers and blockers. This effect creates some amazing synergies with most of the other rats I’ve mentioned.

#1. Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion is a great addition to almost any deck that plays black. Being able to steal your opponents’ spells is always good, and it opens up the possibility to cast basically anything you steal since you can play them by paying life instead of mana.

Best Rat Payoffs

There are a handful of non-rat creatures that create Rat tokens. Creatures like Piper of the Swarm, Totentanz, Swarm Piper, and Ogre Slumlord can both ensure your field is consistently full of rats, and the nonlegendary Piper even lets you use them to steal your opponents’ creatures.

Ratcatcher is another useful addition to rat tribal decks that lets you tutor for a rat so you can get some of the ninjutsu ones into your hand more quickly. Two more great additions are Gnawing Crescendo and Species Specialist because most of your rats are gonna die more often than not.

Valley Rotcaller can be a huge life swing if you’re seriously into rats. It’s not hard for it to attack and drain each opponent for 5 or 6.

Since many rats care about the number of rats you have, cards like Pack Rat and Vren, the Relentless are enablers and payoffs for the strategy, creating */* tokens that have power and toughness equal to the number of rats you control. 

Swarmyard Massacre is great for sweeping their small creatures while leaving your mighty rats intact.

Wrap Up

Ruin Rat | Illustration by Shreya Shetty

Rats are a super underrated tribe. They’re absurdly cute animals in real life and can be a fun and more unusual strategy in Magic. They’re a viable tribe without being too broken, and most of them are even great additions in other decks.

What do you think? Do you like rats in Magic? Did I miss your favorite one? Leave a comment down below letting me know, and don’t forget to check out the Draftsim Discord to find an amazing community of Magic fans.

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time!